By Mark Allen, Irish Blue And Gold
When Notre Dame and Navy meet on Saturday, October 28 (game time at noon in Baltimore), it will be the 80th meeting. The Irish lead the series, 69-9-1. At home, Notre Dame is 26-3, while on neutral fields (Navy really does not have a home field when playing the Irish), the Irish lead, 43-6-1. Notre Dame has won 42 games in a row versus the Midshipmen. That is the largest winning streak of any college versus another rival.
The above dominant numbers do not really tell the complete story in the series between the Middies and Fighting Irish, however. Since 1976, thirty years ago, Navy has come oh so close on six occasions. On those six occasions, Navy has lost by six points or less.
- 2003: Notre Dame 27, Navy 24
- 2002: Notre Dame 30, Navy 23
- 1999: Notre Dame 28, Navy 24
- 1997: Notre Dame 21, Navy 17
- 1984: Notre Dame 18, Navy 17
- 1976: Notre Dame 27, Navy 21
This week, you will hear the same phrases by Charlie Weis and the media that has been uttered every season since eternity, it seems.
“Navy will not quit. They will play from the opening whistle to the final gun”.
“The Midshipmen are very discplined”.
“The Navy option is hard to defend and prepare for”.
“It is nice to know we have such fine young men defending our country”.
A couple of Saturday’s ago, Rutgers went out and defeated Navy, 34-0. There was no fanfare. They just went out and played.
Do the Irish talk themselves into close games with Navy? I say, yes, they do. No other opponent gets the benefit of such respect from Notre Dame. Take UCLA, for example. They came into Notre Dame Stadium and, except for the final 27 seconds, they had the Irish beaten. Yet, there was no raised helmets coming from Notre Dame in a show of respect (as they do for Navy). There was no singing of the UCLA fight song by Charlie Weis and the Notre Dame players (as they do for Navy).
Yes, Navy deserves resepect. There is a history between Notre Dame and the Naval Academy. That is well-documented and will continue to be. Navy helped Notre Dame in the 1940s and the Irish helped Navy.
This Saturday, Notre Dame needs to go to Baltimore and play versus Navy the same way they would against anyone else. There will be time after the game for their display of respect. But, please, Notre Dame, do it after the game.
2 Comments
October 23, 2006 at 3:31 pm
Mark, I bought a bunch of Middies beers after the 2002 game. In fact, I probably bought them too many beers. Does that count?
October 23, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Well, Jeff – that depends on whether or not you respected them the next morning. lol